ABSTRACTED FROM WEBSITE: Our new Research Brief The Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas discusses the roles and responsibilities of governments, parliaments, domestic courts, National Human Rights Institutions, UN specialized agencies, funds and programmes, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), regional organizations and human rights mechanisms, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and the Committee on World Food Security in implementing the UNDROP.

Since 2010, Myanmar has experienced unprecedented political and economic changes described in the literature as democratic transition or metamorphosis. The aim of this paper is to analyze the strategy of accumulation by dispossession in the frontier areas as a precondition and persistent element of Myanmar’s transition. Through this particular regime of dispossession – described as frontier capitalism – the periphery is turned into a supplier of resource revenues to fuel economic growth at the center.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This briefing paper is designed to assist and build the capacities of those engaged in formulating an eventual peace agreement concerning the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar with options on how best to address the myriad HLP issues in the country based on similar experiences in other countries. It explores some of the fundamental HLP issues common to most conflicts, how these have played out in the Myanmar context, and how other countries have addressed these in various peace agreements and negotiated settlements.

This is a case about innovative approach of Boonrueng wetland forest conservation against land conversion for Special Economic Zone. Boonrueng wetland forest is the largest seasonal flooded forest in the Ing watershed located in the North of Thailand. It provides the high ecological functions and qualities of the tributary in the downstream Ing River, out-flowing into the Mekong River. The conversion of land for the economic regionalization in Chiang Khong district is geared up in 2015 and Boonrueng wetland forest was identified as an area for Special Economic Zone.

Forest landscape conflicts can be devastating on many levels – economic, environmental and social, from individual, to subnational, national and global levels. They are symptomatic of many issues revolving around weak governance. The problem is that seldom are they effectively addressed. The aim of the paper is to better understand how and why forest landscape conflicts are happening, who is addressing them, and what can be done to prevent conflict or improve conflict outcomes.

This study focuses on watershed management in Northern Thailand, where conflict over forest, land and water-use is a prevailing problem. A characteristic of watershed conflicts is that they are often multifaceted and involve multiple stakeholders with different interests and values, consequently requiring conflict management approaches that are sustainable in their outcomes, including addressing the underlying causes of the conflicts.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in Thailand make a vital contribution to the advancement of human rights and are in urgent need of recognition and protection. Since the May 2014 coup, they have increasingly become at risk of violence, discrimination, and other violations of their human rights. Women have been systematically excluded from public consultations and decision-making processes, particularly on issues related to land and natural resources.

ABSTRACTED FROM WEBSITE INTRODUCTION: This briefing looks at the particular situation of people displaced by armed conflict. It will do so from the perspective that displacement is complicated in its own right, but any proposed solutions to displacement must also be understood in a wider context of rapid land polarization. Failure to take this perspective risks more harm than good. For people affected by displacement, land is much more than just an economic asset.

Namati offers this brief in the hope that Myanmar’s national reforms and the implementation of the country’s new National Land Use Policy can grow from the lived experience of ordinary Myanmar citizens. Namati and our partners assist farmers in Myanmar to claim their land rights through a community paralegal approach. Community paralegals are trained in relevant laws, community education, negotiation, and mediation skills to work with farmers to resolve a variety of land rights issues.

The Asia-Pacific region is a hotspot for forest landscape conflicts which are played out between local communities and outsiders such as government agencies and private companies. Increased competition for limited natural resources, rapid sociopolitical change, and expanding markets for forest products and land have heightened tensions and intensified conflicts over resource-use priorities. There are numerous methods for addressing conflict, including negotiation, arbitration, adjudication and mediation.

INTRODUCTION: Myanmar stands at a historic crossroads: one where the optimism of a "critical juncture" that is "more promising than at any time in recent memory" meets apprehension over what could happen if a "host of social crises that have long blighted our country" go unaddressed. After more than sixty years of civil war and ‘social crises’, land grabbing figures are high. New legislation is designed to move land out of the hands of rural working people and into the hands of ‘modern farmers’ and foreign and domestic big business actors.

In 2012, the Government of Myanmar passed the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow, Virgin Land Law, with an aim to increase investment in land through the formalization of a land market. Land titling is often considered “the natural end point of land rights formalization.” A major obstacle to achieving this in Myanmar is its legacy of multiple regimes which has created “stacked laws.” This term refers to a situation in which a country has multiple layers of laws that exist simultaneously, leading to conflicts and contradictions in the legal system.